Books like 'The Mandolin Lunch'

Readers who enjoyed The Mandolin Lunch by Missouri Vaun also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  lesbian romance  forced proximity  third-person-pov  dual-pov  office  small town  independent heroine  poor heroine  single-mother 

  • When You Least Expect It by Haley Cass

    When You Least Expect It by Haley Cass

    Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 26 ratings
    Caroline Parker knows three things to be true. First, she is going to be Boston's most sought after divorce attorney by thirty-five. Second, given how terrible her romantic track record is, falling in love isn't in the cards for her. And third, Christmas only brings her bad luck - being broken up with not once, not twice, but three times during the holidays is proof enough of that...
  • Above all Things by Roslyn Sinclair

    Above all Things by Roslyn Sinclair

    Rated: 4.65 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 13 ratings
    The Carlisle saga continues…Aspiring writer Jules Moretti and iconic fashion editor Vivian Carlisle have been through the wringer.As Vivian’s personal assistant, Jules was there for her ice queen boss’s whims, commands, and the shocking discovery of her pregnancy. Just as shocking was Jules’s realization that she was falling hard for Vivian…and that the feeling was mutual...
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  • Hotel Queens by Lee Winter

    Hotel Queens by Lee Winter

    Rated: 4.64 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Ice meets fire in this opposites-attract lesbian romance, as layered, sassy, and smart as its characters. Over one long night at a bar in Las Vegas, two powerful hotel executives meet, flirt, and challenge each other—having no clue they’re rivals after the same dream deal.Brilliant ice queen Amelia Duxton is a hotel vice president who thrives on control, truth, and efficiency...
  • Broken Beyond Repair by Emily Banting

    Broken Beyond Repair by Emily Banting

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 21 ratings
    WINNER OF THE QUEER INDIE AWARDS 2022 CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE CATEGORYAn age gap, celebrity ice queen romance that will pull at the heart strings — even the icy ones!Sydney MacKenzie, personal assistant to the rich and famous, is looking forward to a well-earned break to go travelling in her beloved VW camper van, Gertie — that is, until Gertie cries off sick...
  • If I Don't Ask by E.J. Noyes

    If I Don't Ask by E.J. Noyes

    Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Rebecca Keane has it all figured out. With a successful career as an Army surgeon and a fresh promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, she loves her life leading a surgical team. Even if that life means she’s spent years hiding her sexuality and ignoring her desires under the Army’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy...
  • The Music and the Mirror by Lola Keeley

    The Music and the Mirror by Lola Keeley

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Anna is the newest member of an elite ballet company. Her first class with her mysterious idol, Victoria, almost ruins her career before it starts. When she shows she might be a potential star, Victoria chooses Anna to launch a new season around. Now Anna must face down jealousy, sabotage and injury, not to mention navigate the circus of friends and lovers within the company...
  • The Love Conspiracy: An Age-Gap Lesbian Romance by J.J. Arias

    The Love Conspiracy: An Age-Gap Lesbian Romance by J.J. Arias

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Could you fall in love with your husband’s mistress?Forty-year-old Veronica Marin is a force to be reckoned with - a fierce trial lawyer who's always in control, including in her marriage to Gabe. But when a stranger shows up and exposes Gabe's infidelity, Veronica's reality is rocked. Her solution? To track down all of Gabe's unsuspecting partners before filing for divorce...
  • Just Three Words by Melissa Brayden

    Just Three Words by Melissa Brayden

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Sometimes the one you want is the one you least suspect... Accountant Samantha Ennis craves order and structure. As the bookkeeper at the boutique advertising agency she owns with her three best friends, it’s her job to apply logic to the chaos. When one of those best friends, laid back Hunter Blair, moves in to share her loft apartment, Sam’s carefully organized world is thrown wildly askew...
  • Mutual Benefits by H.P. Munro

    Mutual Benefits by H.P. Munro

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Coming out to your loved ones is stressful, so when Hannah Melville’s family not only accept but celebrate her accidental announcement, it should be a relief. Which it would be, if Hannah was gay.Ashley West isn’t looking for a relationship. When she’s set up by her mother on a blind date, she’s ready to nip any expectations in the bud. She’s less prepared for her love interest to be straight...
  • Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake

    Iris Kelly Doesn't Date by Ashley Herring Blake

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 27 ratings
    Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are all coupled up, her siblings have partners that are perfect for them, her parents are still in marital bliss. And she’s happy for all of them, truly. So what if she usually cries in her Lyft on the way home. So what if she misses her friends, who are so busy with their own wonderful love lives, they don’t really notice Iris is spiraling...
  • Chemistry by Rachael Sommers

    Chemistry by Rachael Sommers

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 15 ratings
    An opposites-attract, ice queen lesbian romance about finding the softest of hearts behind the highest walls.Newly minted high school teacher Lily Cross is young, bubbly, and can’t wait to put her fresh ideas into practice in the classroom. Her excitement is derailed after a disastrous run-in with a colleague...
  • These Thin Lines by Milena McKay

    These Thin Lines by Milena McKay

    Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Some lines should never be crossed...In the heart of Paris, Chiara Conti is a Queen trapped in an Ivory Tower of haute couture, fortune and lovelessness. Lonely and dejected, she’s longing for inspiration, for direction, for understanding.When Vi Courtenay falls at her feet, losing her shoe like a veritable Cinderella, events are set in motion that will unravel their carefully fashioned lives...
  • Bachelorette Number Twelve by Jae

    Bachelorette Number Twelve by Jae

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 10 ratings
    At a singles auction where no one was bidding on love, a warmhearted ER nurse finds herself dating a prickly doctor in this enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance.Ellie Fisher loves most things about being a nurse in the emergency department…just not working with Regina Novak, an icy attending physician who acts as if she’s God’s gift to medicine.The dislike is completely mutual...
  • Breaking Character by Lee Winter

    Breaking Character by Lee Winter

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 16 ratings
    Life has become a farcical mess for icy British A-lister Elizabeth Thornton. America’s most-hated villain stars in a top-rated TV medical drama that she hates. Now, she’s been romantically linked to her perky, new co-star, Summer, due to the young woman’s clumsiness. As a closeted actress, that’s the last thing Elizabeth needs...
  • Just for Show by Jae

    Just for Show by Jae

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 15 ratings
    When Claire, an overachieving psychologist with OCD tendencies, hires Lana, an impulsive, out-of-work actress for a fake relationship, she figures the worst she’ll have to endure are the messes Lana leaves around. It’s only for a few months anyway. And it’s not as if she’ll enjoy all those fake kisses and loving looks. Right? A lesbian romance where role-playing has never been so irresistible...
  • Say Cheese by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod

    Say Cheese by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    In a small town teetering on the brink of collapse, will one woman's arrival seal a factory’s fate or open the floodgate for love and redemption?Elle Robinson's world is literally swept away when a raging flood sends her car careening toward certain doom, only to be rescued by Angela Lane – a spirited, self-reliant, and unexpected savior who pulls Elle back from the edge of calamity...
  • Fated Love by Radclyffe

    Fated Love by Radclyffe

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    What do you do when your carefully planned life takes a wrong turn into hell? When Quinn Maguire, a dashing young trauma surgeon, unaccountably accepts a position as an ER physician, her new boss, Honor Blake, suspects that Quinn is hiding a dark secret. While the two declare an uneasy truce in an effort to work together, both struggle with mutual, and unexpected, attraction...
    Categorized as:
    office  queer  f-f  contemporary  boss & employee
  • And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane

    And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    **Recipient of three 2008 "Goldies" from the Golden Crown Literary Society, the premier organization for the support and nourishment of quality lesbian literature. And Playing the Role of Herself won in the categories of Lesbian Romance, Lesbian Debut Author, and the Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award. Congratulations to K. E...
  • Pas de deux by E.J. Noyes

    Pas de deux by E.J. Noyes

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 8 ratings
    Caitlyn Lloyd has the world at her feet. Or more accurately—under her horse’s hooves. With the 2016 Rio Olympics just around the corner, nothing is going to derail her long-held dream of winning a medal or two in Olympic dressage. Not even the reappearance of a childhood so-not-a-friend throwing her perfectly balanced life into disarray...
  • The No Kiss Contract by Nan Campbell

    The No Kiss Contract by Nan Campbell

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 8 ratings
    Despite being the youngest partner at her firm, corporate attorney Davy Dugan is gunning for a recently vacant name partnership—it would mean finally having the power to make a real change in her conservative workplace. But eighty-hour workweeks don’t allow any time with her much younger half-sister, Tally, who doesn’t seem to need Davy in her life anyway...
  • Beyond Any Experience by Anne E. Terpstra

    Beyond Any Experience by Anne E. Terpstra

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 8 ratings
    Olivia Northman’s world shattered the day she lost her wife to a drunk driver. Three years later, she still struggles with grief and the demands of being a single parent to their autistic son, Ben. After her first attempt at a new relationship crumbles, she retreats to the simple, the predictable. It’s what’s best for her son, and her heart.Ellie Vasquez isn’t simple or predictable...
  • If You Kiss Me Like That by Harper Bliss

    If You Kiss Me Like That by Harper Bliss

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 11 ratings
    Sometimes love shows up where you least expect it.Ashley ‘Ash’ Cooper is still reeling after her recent divorce, throwing all her energy into her job in The City. When she’s seated next to one of her mother’s friends at a family party, falling in love is the last thing on her mind.After losing her husband many years ago, Gloria Young rebuilt herself as a single parent...
  • First Position by Melissa Brayden

    First Position by Melissa Brayden

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Anastasia Mikhelson is the rising star of the New York City Ballet. She’s sacrificed creature comforts, a social life, as well as her own physical well-being for perfection in dance. Even her reputation as The Ice Queen doesn’t faze her. Though Ana’s at the peak of her career, competition from a new and noteworthy dancer puts all she’s worked for in jeopardy...
  • Kiss the Girl by Melissa Brayden

    Kiss the Girl by Melissa Brayden

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 26 ratings
    Sleeping with the enemy has never been so complicated. Twenty-eight-year-old Brooklyn Campbell is having a bad day. A speeding ticket, a towed car, and a broken heel are all working against her laid-back vibe. To top it all off, her birth mother, whom she's never met, has requested contact. The only bright spot is an impromptu date with a beautiful and mysterious brunette...
  • Just a Touch Away by Jae

    Just a Touch Away by Jae

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 13 ratings
    An ice queen’s frosty façade is melted by the power of touchHannah Martin has an unusual job: she’s a professional cuddler. While she has a big heart for her clients, she hasn’t found someone special to snuggle up to in her personal life.Winter Sullivan isn’t looking for love. She’s an aloof workaholic who’s built walls of ice around herself...
  • Temptation by Kris Bryant

    Temptation by Kris Bryant

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 15 ratings
    Cassie Miller is broke. Her parents cut off all funding when she dropped out of medical school, and graduate school is expensive. A full-time nanny job at the Wellington estate is the answer to her problems, except working for beautiful, successful Brook Wellington wasn't in the job description. Brook has always had a head for business...
  • Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae

    Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 19 ratings
    A single text message can change everything! Flirting has never been Denny’s strong suit, but so what if she’s too shy to ask women out? She’s content with her simple life, working as a cashier and helping her sister raise her niece...
  • Passing Through by Katia Rose

    Passing Through by Katia Rose

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Nestled in a towering fir forest on British Columbia’s famous Vancouver Island, Three Rivers Campground is calling you to come relax, explore, and maybe even fall in love...Emily Rivers does not have time for love.Or dating.Or even a one night stand...
  • A Life Worth Living by Monica McCallan

    A Life Worth Living by Monica McCallan

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    Nora Gallagher can begrudgingly admit that she and Gray Ferris are both stellar Philadelphia real estate agents, but that’s the beginning and the end of the similarities between them.Nora’s life has been in a self-imposed holding pattern for half a decade. Depending on people in her personal life only leads to disappointment, and she has no plans of making that mistake again...
  • A Life Worth Living by Monica McCallan

    A Life Worth Living by Monica McCallan

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Nora Gallagher can begrudgingly admit that she and Gray Ferris are both stellar Philadelphia real estate agents, but that’s the beginning and the end of the similarities between them.Nora’s life has been in a self-imposed holding pattern for half a decade. Depending on people in her personal life only leads to disappointment, and she has no plans of making that mistake again...
  • The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair

    The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 13 ratings
    A smart, sexy lesbian romance about facing the truth about your desires…and risking everything. Laurie Holcombe is out of a job, out of luck, and out of time. When a prestigious law firm hires her as an assistant to one of its senior partners, it feels like she might finally get back on her feet. All she has to do is put up with the whims of her infuriatingly icy boss, Diana...
  • Beginner's Bet by Fiona Riley

    Beginner's Bet by Fiona Riley

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Ellison Gamble owns the most successful luxury real estate firm in Boston, but the accomplishment feels hollow when she comes home to an empty house.Institutionalizing her mother for her own safety was the hardest thing Katie Crawford has ever done. The costs are becoming more than she can manage, and her only solution is to sell her childhood home that has fallen into disrepair...
  • Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter

    Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    An offbeat lesbian romantic comedy starring penguins, plotting, and payback.Muffin maker Olivia Roberts has had it with her awful exes taking advantage of her good nature. The theft of her nana’s beloved stuffed penguin is the absolute last straw.She puts up an ad at her local crime bookstore for a henchperson to help her enact a little mild revenge...
    Categorized as:
    office  queer  age difference  f-f  contemporary  christmas  humor  m-m
  • Sparks Like Ours by Melissa Brayden

    Sparks Like Ours by Melissa Brayden

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Gia Malone wants one thing and one thing only: to be the best surfer in the world. Her biggest obstacle is the annoyingly perky Elle Britton. Not only is Elle number one in the rankings, she’s also a fan favorite. But there’s a lot about Elle that Gia never noticed, like her surprising sense of humor and picture-perfect mouth. Elle Britton is tired...
  • Back to September by Melissa Brayden

    Back to September by Melissa Brayden

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 7 ratings
    Hannah Shephard likes her life, her job, and her perfectly cozy apartment around the corner from her shop. She’s never been one to take big risks and would much rather stay in on a Friday night with a warm cup of decaf and her favorite mystery novel, so why do her friends insist she needs more? Plus, Hannah has bigger problems to focus on. She’s in trouble...
  • About That Kiss by Harper Bliss

    About That Kiss by Harper Bliss

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    What if the greatest role of your life is playing your true self?Ida Burton used to be Hollywood’s sweetheart until the best roles started drying up in her forties.When Ida lands one of the leads in a big-budget lesbian rom-com, it's not only a chance at reviving her dwindling career. Maybe this movie can be an opportunity to finally burst out of the closet she's forced herself into...
  • Dance with Me by Georgia Beers

    Dance with Me by Georgia Beers

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    Is there anything worse than your I-don’t-do-commitment ex finally getting married? Not according to Scottie Templeton. Factor in living with her grandma, her rattletrap car, and never-ending job struggles, and Scottie’s stressed...
  • Body Check: A Lesbian Romance by J.J. Arias

    Body Check: A Lesbian Romance by J.J. Arias

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    To win it all, rivals will have to get dirty and play together Fabiola Santos never expected to be back on Cutthroat Island, the reality competition show she lost six years earlier. But when the opportunity to redeem herself and win half a million dollars comes along, she can’t pass it up...
  • Integrity by E.J. Noyes

    Integrity by E.J. Noyes

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    It's an ordinary workday when intelligence analyst Lexie Martin learns about a horrific chemical weapon attack abroad. Just an ordinary day...until a stranger breaks into her house and warns her to forget what she saw and heard, setting off a chain of events Lexie thought only happened in movies...
  • Whipped by J.J. Arias

    Whipped by J.J. Arias

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    If she can’t get through to her in the office, she’ll smash into her on skates. . .Newly minted lawyer Cheyenne Flores-Moore is excited to start her career at one of the most prestigious law firms in Miami. That is, until she meets her mentor Erica. It seems that no matter what she does, she can’t win her over - something the perennially sunny Cheyenne has not experienced before...
  • All the Little Moments by G. Benson

    All the Little Moments by G. Benson

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    A successful anaesthetist, Anna is focused on herself, her career, and her girlfriend. Everything changes abruptly when her brother’s and sister-in-law’s deaths devastate her and her family. Left responsible for her young niece and nephew, Anna finds herself dumped and alone in Melbourne, a city she doesn’t even like...
    Categorized as:
    office  queer  f-f  contemporary
  • Not the Marrying Kind by Jae

    Not the Marrying Kind by Jae

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 9 ratings
    Small-town florist Ashley Gaines loves her little flower shop and putting together the perfect bouquets for weddings and other happy occasions. Her own love life, however, is far from blossoming. Ash has decided that staying in the closet is safer than risking her heart again. Local bakery owner Sasha Peterson hasn’t had much luck mixing it up with romance either...
  • The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

    The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 48 ratings
    Lambda Literary award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur returns with a steamy Sapphic rom-com about a quiet bookseller and a romance novel cover model who agree to a modern-day marriage-of-convenience...Tansy Adams’ greatest love is her family’s bookstore, passed down from her late father. But when it comes to actual romance… Tansy can’t get past the first chapter...
  • Just Physical by Jae

    Just Physical by Jae

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 10 ratings
    After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, twenty-five-year-old Jill Corrigan takes herself off the romantic market. Not wanting to become a burden to a potential partner, she focuses on her career as an actress instead. On the set of a disaster movie, she meets stunt woman Kristine “Crash” Patterson, whose easy smile instantly makes Jill wish things were different...
  • In Development by Rachel Spangler

    In Development by Rachel Spangler

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 10 ratings
    From a young age, Cobie Galloway made a career of playing the girl-next-door on the silver screen. Only, she's not a teenager anymore. Ready to challenge herself artistically and earn the part she's always dreamed of, she's forced to face the realization that in order to win the roles afforded to edgier actresses, she might first have to audition by playing someone edgier in her day-to-day life...
  • Paper Love by Jae

    Paper Love by Jae

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 10 ratings
    Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan in this lesbian romance from best-selling author Jae. Susanne Wolff isn’t thrilled when her mother sends her all the way across the country to Freiburg to save her uncle’s stationery store from bankruptcy. Freiburg is too provincial for her taste, and besides, pen and paper are outdated anyway...
  • Chemistry Lessons by Jae

    Chemistry Lessons by Jae

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 10 ratings
    Sometimes the perfect person has been right in front of you all alongKylie and Regan have been best friends since kindergarten, supporting each other through thick and thin.While everyone thinks they would be perfect for each other, they insist there’s no chemistry between them—and Regan should know since she’s a chemistry teacher...
  • Perfect Rhythm by Jae

    Perfect Rhythm by Jae

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 12 ratings
    Pop star Leontyne Blake might sing about love, but she stopped believing in it a long time ago. What women want is her image, not the real her. When her father has a stroke, she flees the spotlight and returns to her tiny Missouri hometown. In her childhood home, she meets small-town nurse Holly Drummond, who isn’t impressed by Leo’s fame at all...
  • Something's Different by Quinn Ivins

    Something's Different by Quinn Ivins

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 17 ratings
    Unemployed academic Caitlyn Taylor comes home to family drama. Her carefree twin Chloe plans to ditch her job to visit a guy she met online. Caitlyn steps in to impersonate Chloe so she won’t get fired for skipping town. Unfortunately, this means answering phones for an icy, dismissive boss.Busy college president Ruth Holloway never paid much attention to her mediocre assistant...
  • Jericho by Ann McMan

    Jericho by Ann McMan

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    Librarian Syd Murphy flees the carnage of a failed marriage by accepting an eighteen-month position in Jericho–a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia...
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